Melting in the limelight…..

Posted on July 9, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Silent as an owl, the file of warriors slipped through the forest, grim and intent. Each carried a staff, strapped to their backs, and a long knife. Coming to the edge of the forest, they gathered behind a huge, old oak to finalize their plan. The leader, worn and grizzled, crouched down to draw in the dirt a map of the city just out of sight beyond the forest’s edge.

With his knife, he drew the street holding their target destination, and pointed to a tall warrior. “You will scout ahead of the mission, eliminating any witnesses,” the leader growled. “Don’t kill them, but put them out of action.”

He turned then to the one small figure in the group, a boy of about 13, dressed in city garb. “Do you know what to do?” “Yes,” replied the boy, with a nervous shake of his head. “I’m to go inside the target, and give the order to the ones inside.” “And then?,” the leader persisted. “And then, when they give me the bags, I bring them out to the rest of the team.” “Good”, replied the old man. “And don’t forget to Super Size the fries on all of the orders, and don’t forget the strawberry shake for the prince…..”

Sorry, had to get that out, it’s been in there festering since yesterday….. I saved it until this morning; since I’ve had so much trouble with finding intro material, I figured it would do just fine. And it does. Or, it appears to, anyway. Since I stopped working for the government, it will have to do. Besides, after two paragraphs, you don’t think I’m going to delete it all, do you? No way…..

I am, therefore I think. Is this putting Descartes before the horse? — Smart Bee

But, I will also have pity, and trouble you no more with this bit of nonsense. We will now go directly into the WWW to dive for pearls. Or, dive deep into Smart Bee, whichever works better; I can never tell from this end…. Shall we Pearl?……

I’d give you a piece of my mind….but I can’t find it. — Smart Bee
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“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

Oscar is right, as usual. When one is sincere, and fully so, one is so busy maintaining that illusion that they are blind to insincerity, they can then be ruthlessly manipulated by those with whom they traffic. As a matter of fact, a person who is morally upright stands at an extreme disadvantage in today’s world. Honesty, sincerity, integrity, dignity, all the virtues of an honorable man place that man in a perilous position in a world where everyone else is trying to “get their own”, and will lie, cheat, and steal in order to do so. And they don’t care that it isn’t fair, either….

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” — Noah Webster

This is exactly the issue that Oscar warned us about, this little bit of sincerity shown by the candidates for positions of power in society. Of course, this can be logically predicted; they wouldn’t get very far if they were telling the truth about their intentions. Nobody is going to vote for the guy who says, “Oh yes, I want to be (mayor, governor, president, whatever) so I can steal from the public treasury.” Even honesty isn’t going to buy that vote. And the beloved ruling class knows this very well, so they smother us in their good intentions, while happily fondling the treasury house keys they are given…..

“Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.” — Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753)

We are witnessing just such a situation today, with the Republicans and conservatives all making noise about the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the healthcare law. This is the same law that the Republicans and conservatives proposed back in the 1990’s, when they were doing their best to nullify anything Clinton could do. The law that is now in effect is almost exactly the same plan that they were supporting then.

Now that it has been instituted, their partisanship has them denying any such scenario. They just act as if it had never happened, which is how they usually deny any previous lies. “What? Me? No, I never said that….” is a common response, which is not as effective as it might have been, since the quotes in question were recorded on tape.

With virtue you cannot be entirely poor… Without it you cannot be really rich. — Chinese Proverb

Let’s face it, ffolkes, there is NO virtue left in our government. The forces of the selfish and ignorant have assumed control of the media, and of the government, and they are not about to give it up without a fight. That fight is coming, you can be certain, as this country still holds a lot of folks who think for themselves. These people also own guns, and will not be persuaded to put them down, just because everyone else wants them to; nor will these people stand for having the rights we were given by the founding fathers of this country taken away from them.

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” — Mark Twain Following the Equator (1897)

My hope is that the conflict that is coming will be carried out on paper, and online; if the conflict spills over into reality (as it did recently in Egypt, Libya, and other Arab countries) then the folks with guns are going to get involved, and it will get ugly, I guarantee. You can kill a free man, but you can’t control him…. If he has virtue, he will stand for the right, no matter what…. and he isn’t going to give up his guns to convince you….

What part of “shall not be infringed” don’t you understand? — Smart Bee
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Life Circumspect

Sad lost moments live
infamous with dignity.
Chance may rule, or not.

gigoid
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All Is Vanity, Saieth the Preacher

I.
Fame, wisdom, love, and power were mine,
And health and youth possess’d me;
My goblets blush’d from every vine,
And lovely forms caress’d me;
I sunn’d my heart in beauty’s eyes,
And felt my soul grow tender:
All earth can give, or mortal prize,
Was mine of regal splendour.

II.
I strive to number o’er what days
Remembrance can discover,
Which all that life or earth displays
Would lure me to live over.
There rose no day, there roll’d no hour
Of pleasure unembitter’d;
And not a trapping deck’d my power
That gall’d not while it glitter’d.

III.
The serpent of the field, by art
And spells, is won from harming;
But that which coils around the heart,
Oh! who hath power of charming?
It will not list to wisdom’s lore,
Nor music’s voice can lure it;
But there it stings for evermore
The soul that must endure it.

George Gordon Lord Byron

A little bit of Romanticism always brings me to a good conclusion…. enjoy!
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It’s a wrap…. I was a bit uncertain today as to how this might turn out, but it seems my fears were premature, if not completely unnecessary. Once again, I find myself without any idea as to how good it might be, but I’m going with instinct here, so a little slack would be appreciated…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

On the path of least resistance….

Posted on July 7, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Reality can be a slippery slope around here, especially in the early morning, and today is no exception. I looked at the clock while in bed, and saw it was 0515; I could hear the coffee finishing up brewing in the kitchen. I blinked, and rolled over to get up, and the clock now reads 0656…. I lost an hour and more, to a bloody blink! Now you can understand why I never pay for my reality; I can never count on it being where or when I left it, and it’s never in the shape I think it should be in….. which is, I know, my fault, as I am the one who determines the shape it takes, merely by viewing it….SIGH… I wonder if I could out-source this whole getting up procedure?…. It might be worth looking at….

As might be surmised, this morning finds me a bit on the groggy side, which, as a rule, tends to have a deleterious effect on the introduction. So far it isn’t too bad; at least it’s not a rant. Early ranting turns everything dark, and dreary, and who needs that in the morning? Certainly not me…. Ranting first thing does get things moving right along, though, and provides a direction. If only it were more elegant, or at least funny, it would be an acceptable beginning. But, rants usually are neither elegant, nor funny, unless we are talking about Mitt the Twitt, in which case funny just can’t be kept out of the picture, as he takes pretty careful aim at his foot every time he opens his mouth…..

Ah well, I suppose we should just get on with it, eh? Slip on a mask, grab some flippers, and let’s go Pearling!….

I was sane once… didn’t like it. — Smart Bee
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FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening
meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

The Devil’s Dictionary was first published in the late 1800’s, and was considered to be quite radical, even for that time in history, when literature was at what might be called a peak of influence on society. The scientific industrialization of manufacturing that took place in this time, in the days after the Industrial Revolution began, created similar growth in other areas of human endeavor, including philosophy, medicine, and psychology. However, the growth that took place was completely in the physical world; spiritually, there has been no change at all; if anything, we have seen an overall decline in the advance of human consciousness.

Mr. Bierce seems to have learned to channel the future, for almost every entry I can find from the book is as relevant to Now as it was when first published. I find this definition of FOOL to be as perceptive and insightful as it is funny, and that is saying something, considering it makes most ffolkes ROTFL. 🙂 (Sometimes, text language is cool!….) The comedy that we call politics that is the highlight of the daily news outlets in today’s world could have been scripted using this definition as a cast call.

Day after day, we are bombarded with the latest outrageous mouthings of the POTUS, and his stand-up sidekick straight man, Mitt the Twitt, the SCOTUS, Senators, Congressmen, televangelists, female ex-governors who can’t seem to keep their mouths shut, preachers we wish would crawl back under a rock, and the latest token “awww” story of a kitten rescue. (Yes, yet another instance of some idiot human starting a fire, and making the local government spend a couple tens of thousands of dollars to make sure her/his cat is safely out of their now-useless domicile….)

I suppose the constant parade of human folly that passes before our eyes each day could be considered as comic relief. Goodness knows we could use a little humor, after having to watch another group of daily screw-ups by the bozos on the bus, to wit: all of us. Every day we are given more examples of how cruel people can be to each other, or how much more terror can be caused for the largest number of innocent people. One has only to switch on the TV, or check out the front page of a newspaper, or an online news outlet, to see at least one or two stories that will curl your hair and toes, just to think about.

I know it just made my day a couple days ago to see Romney’s latest statement…. you know, the one where he promised his constituents that if he were elected, his first task would be to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision on the health care bill, effectively stating that yes, we would be going back to the Stone Age for the next four years…. Also interesting is his unstated but obvious belief that, as President, he can do whatever he wants, including setting aside Supreme Court decisions…. something I think he neglected to check against the Constitution…. He’s just out there, smiling and waving, and parroting what his handlers want him to say, and all is good, in his mind, wherever he keeps it….

Ah well…. at least I’ll never lack for material. In fact, there is so much of it to choose from, finding one to use can be a sticky process, and requires a session in the grooming area after handling so much tacky stuff…. But, I AM sixty-one, and have learned to think ahead a little…. I do put my hair into a well-bound up pony tail, to keep it from getting all mucked up while I’m immersed in the crap they put into circulation.

That one thing, foresight, is the single most telling, and most valuable, advantage I’ve found to getting older. One doesn’t get caught so often in activities requiring clean-up afterward, and all that is required is to be prepared for it…. just like most of Life, isn’t it? We can go through life and give in to the urge to be a full time bozo, otherwise known as a Fool…. or you can open up your eyes and brain, and at least keep from getting stuff all over your shoes and/or hair….
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Along The Field as We Came By

ALONG the field as we came by
A year ago, my love and I,
The aspen over stile and stone
Was talking to itself alone.
“Oh who are these that kiss and pass?
A country lover and his lass;
Two lovers looking to be wed;
And time shall put them both to bed,
But she shall lie with earth above,
And he beside another love.”

And sure enough beneath the tree
There walks another love with me,
And overhead the aspen heaves
Its rainy-sounding silver leaves;
And I spell nothing in their stir,
But now perhaps they speak to her,
And plain for her to understand
They talk about a time at hand
When I shall sleep with clover clad,
And she beside another lad.

Alfred Edward Housman

Culture break…. One is always welcome after ranting about stuff that will never change…. kind of like Don Quixote and his windmills, I guess, though not as sweaty….. besides, I like this poem. It’s simple, and easy on the spirit; it doesn’t ask a lot from the reader…..
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“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs – jolted by every pebble in the road.” — Henry Beecher

“You can observe a lot just by watchin’.” — Yogi Berra

Whenever I need to lighten up, I go look in the mirror…. it’s always good for a giggle or two. When I write, I tend to gravitate toward darker material for discussion. Probably has to do with the fact there is so much out there in reality with which I have issues. Of course, we all have issues with reality; seldom have I met a person who is completely content with their lot. Like Gilda Radner said, “There’s always something!….” Having chosen to write this blog about those things I see that are worthy of discussion, those things are bound to reflect my own nature. Can’t help it, any more than you can…. we are what we are…

“I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam; I’m Popeye the Sailor Man!” — Popeye

Being able to laugh at myself is possibly the most valuable tool I possess for smoothing out the bumps on the path of life. Once, when I was much younger than now ( “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now…. Neil Young) I wrote, “The path to serenity is most likely an uphill climb, but the road doesn’t have to be bumpy, or strewn with rubble….” Or something like that….. It’s still true today, even if it has been edited in my mind over time…. Life is tough, there is no denying, but it is also filled with beauty and joy. In fact, the degree of pain and distress one is able to withstand is always equal to the joy that has been experienced; one just needs to be able to notice the beauty as it presents itself. Then it is always with us, ready to help us smile through the next crisis, knowing the pain will pass, as it always does…. as Yogi says……

“It ain’t over til’ it’s over.” — Yogi Berra

“And then, it’s over” — gigoid
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Well, like the author said, it’s over…. at least for today. Here’s hoping you have a good one…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

A bond of legacy weighs heavily….

Posted on July 4, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
The following is a post I wrote for a site called GoodBlogs, for this holiday in 2010. You may note that a couple of the pearls were used again recently…. but they remain valid…. and this goes to show that on the subject of patriotism, my viewpoint hasn’t changed in the last couple of years; in fact it is even more pronounced now…. Abondanza!…..

Musings of an Independent Nature

Independence Day is one of the few holidays I respect, since it was not created merely to stimulate the economy, as were many of the modern days on the calendar that we are told are “special”. As such, I’d like to pay it the honor of recognition.

In doing so, today’s group of pearls will walk a very dangerous line, as they deal primarily with two subjects that are often unwise to discuss (especially together), i.e. politics and religion. It is generally considered to be unwise because no other subjects arouse as much passion, or as much anger as do these two when the proponents of one or another creed feels challenged by the beliefs of another.

However, lest we forget, the first, and perhaps the most important, of the reasons we fought to be free of English rule was religious freedom; our entire government is based on the principle of separation of church and state. Too often today, those who would call themselves patriots are in reality interested only in preserving their own religious beliefs, and would deny to others the same prerogative.

July 4th, to my way of thinking, is a day to celebrate the diversity of thought allowed by the Constitution, to honor Truth in whatever guise it may take. I find it immensely interesting, and satisfying to note that the quotes I’ve chosen are the thoughts of people from a variety of different periods in our history, but all are alike in their intransigent resistance to any limits of thought or choice……

To forestall any flaming responses, or misunderstanding, I will also state at his point, that just because I have included a pearl, doesn’t necessarily mean that I endorse the same ideas. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t; as a matter of fact, I agree with most of what follows. But, most is not all, and as far as my own thoughts, they are my own; I’ve learned not to share all of them with others, as they have a tendency to make folks uneasy, or even angry. That is unfortunate, but, there it is. Human nature, being what it is, always has the tendency to “shoot the messenger”. I don’t mind; it keeps me on my toes……meantime, enjoy now these statements of belief by a number of important historical figures, and others…….

“But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its luster from the dross of his biographers, and as separable as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man; outlines which it is lamentable he did not live to fill up… The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems*, invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object… *e.g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, etc.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Short, October 31 (Halloween), 1819

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” — H. L. Mencken (1810-1956)

“However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism.”” — Senator Barry Goldwater, from the Congressional Record, September 16, 1981

“You know your country is dying when you have to make a distinction between what is moral and ethical, and what is legal.” — John De Armond, Performance Engineering Magazine, 1994

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin

“They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” — Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800

“The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.” — Confucius (B.C. 551-479)

There you have it…a veritable orgy of ideas, to do with as you please. But take a moment today to think about the historical forces that have led us to the situation we have in the world today, and strengthen your resolve to maintain that freedom that our forefathers left us as their legacy. You honor that legacy when you bend your efforts to use the mind you have been given, and reject outright any and all attempts to curtail, prejudice, or control that mind. Y’all take care out there….and have a good Fourth!….

As a holiday bonus, I offer one final pearl on today’s subject….

“Quite frankly I admit that I am not too talented, rather under-educated, and not too up on current affairs, decidedly uninterested in sports, and additional to all of this I know practically nothing about the stock market, money management, international law, how to deal with terrorism and protective policy. These at the things that worry me, inasmuch as any day now, someone is going to come and ask me to run for President, since so few other folks are so well qualified.” — Smart Bee

Stay safe today, ffolkes. A lot of amateur drinkers get carried away by their enthusiasm, and nothing is more dangerous than a drunk, self-proclaimed patriot on the fourth of July…..
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Profound Truth differs from simple truth in that the negation of a simple truth is a simple falsehood, while the negation of a Profound Truth may be another Profound Truth. E.g. a button with “Life is just as simple as it seems” on one side and “Life is not as simple as it seems” on the other. — Smart Bee

This is an insightful piece of information, and, as such, is one most folks never would even consider, since it requires more than a minimum of thought to comprehend. But, there is hope! I see an opportunity here…. T-shirts!

We could, instead of a button with two Profound Truths on each side, make and sell T-shirts with the same…. add a small logo, and voilà, $35 each, 2 for $60. I smell a small fortune in sales, just at county fairs, NASCAR races, and flea markets. If one of the large chains, like Penneys, or Macy’s, gets wind of it, they’d probably offer a buy-out, or a franchise consignment contract for a medium fortune. It’s a sure winner! Want to invest?….

We could even think up more Profound Truths to put on each side…. like “Always” on one side, and “Never” on the other side. Or, “Your vote makes a difference!” and “Your vote is wasted!” on two sides. Or, “God is Dead!” on one side , with “God is Alive, and living in New Jersey” on the other side. Heck, you could hold contests to see who could come up with the best dualities to put on the shirts. Since the subject matter is Profound, you might even be able to get tax exempt status as an educational tool maker, with a dot .org domain name to boot, where the shirts could be sold and shipped online, for a modest fee.

I see a lot of potential here, with eventual growth into a multinational corporation dedicated to everything all the other corps are against, like Truth, Equality, Diversity, and Responsibility. I rather like the irony of using a corporation, dedicated to justice, to bring down the other corporations, who have long since shown their dedication to greed and oppression….

Hey, another thought…. We could go to California to incorporate, and, jointly, register as a church; in that socio-political stew, who’d notice another new cult? Then we could fight on two fronts, using corporate weapons to fight the corporations, and religious zealotry to fight the religious zealots…. A very balanced, two-pronged attack, with the added bonus of irony on our side…. Can’t lose, eh?…. It’s worth a shot, nothing else seems to be working…..
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Vain was the chief’s the sage’s pride!
They had no poet, and they died.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace, Odes, Book iv, Ode 9

This is much how I react to the absence of poetry in life, so…. here are some fine examples from Mssr. Pope….

Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness

I am his Highness’ dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

Alexander Pope

Couplets on Wit
I
I

But our Great Turks in wit must reign alone
And ill can bear a Brother on the Throne.

Wit is like faith by such warm Fools profest
Who to be saved by one, must damn the rest.

III

Some who grow dull religious strait commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sense.

Wits starve as useless to a Common weal
While Fools have places purely for their Zeal.

Now wits gain praise by copying other wits
As one Hog lives on what another sh—.

Wou’d you your writings to some Palates fit
Purged all you verses from the sin of wit
For authors now are so conceited grown
They praise no works but what are like their own.

Alexander Pope

That should hold me for a day, and you as well…. enjoy!
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“Honk! Honk! My nose is big, and red, my name is Ned, and I am a bozo”…. This is how all of us who attend the meetings at BA preface our remarks. Of course, I’m the only one who says “Ned”, but the rest is the same…

BA (Bozos Anonymous) is a fine organization, patterned on the AA model, that helps those of us who, for some genetic reason, easily fall into the life of a bozo, which, as we all know, is extremely bad, especially for the kids of such pathetic clowns…..

But, at the meetings, we support each other in learning to go through life without falling prey to our condition…. and, we learn not to miss having the occasional belly-laughs happen on a regular basis. As good as they feel, that much lack of seriousness can’t be allowed in a Christian society; it could lead to jokes about politicians, and lawyers, and priests, walking into a bar……

That being said, I wish you all a happy, safe 4th of July! Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Highest quality stress in town….

Posted on July 3, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Knowing it will be like this doesn’t make it any less annoying when it is; it just makes it worse, actually. But, being the trooper I am, I will do my best to look beyond it, and act as if it isn’t important. Which, cosmically speaking, it is not, nor will it ever be. Important, that is. If it was, maybe we could get a better one, but it’s not, so that’s wishful thinking. As we normally do, we will use what we have, the best we can, and hope it will be enough….

Of course, having no idea whatsoever as to what “it” I am speaking of, the previous paragraph really has no meaning, other than finding the means to fill up space. Having stared into space for a good 10 minutes without a single worthwhile thought rising to the surface of my mind, I figured I’d best get started, and just trust that the words would come. Well, they came, even thought they weren’t particularly aroused, Heck, they weren’t even breathing hard! The fact that there is no meaning to any of it has no bearing on reality, other than as a means of getting started on today’s Pearl….

I suppose I’m going to need to take my own advice, quit being lazy, and get some material organized for use in the introduction section. A few pearls, some brainstorm ideas, and an outline ought to do it, and won’t bore me to tears (hopefully). I find myself falling into this position too frequently of late, of being short of anything for the intro, so I may as well be proactive and take away my reasons for complaining. Not that the complaining ever does me any good; it just annoys me more than I already am when faced with such blocks.

Until then, you’ll just have to put up with my pissing and moaning…. or not, as you wish. I do try to make the rest of the Pearl more attractive, but don’t always hit that mark as well as I’d like. And, I think my inability to figure out how to get to other ffolkes blogs is causing me to lose some readers; site traffic has been limited to a few faithful followers in the last couple of weeks since WordPress decided to make it difficult for me to access any blogs.

Ah well, I’m not in this for competition, but for self-therapy, so it doesn’t matter too much…. I just miss being able to read all the great stuff on the other blogs, especially my poetesses, and the other curmudgeons with whom I banter at times…. SIGH…. Shall we Pearl?……
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“I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.” — Chang-tzu, Taoist

So, as it turns out, I am a coward. What I mean by that is, when it comes to emotional pain, I will go through all sorts of contortions to avoid it. I will distract myself, I’ll deny, I’ll forget…. all time-tested methods of putting something unpleasant aside. I can say in my own defense that a) I’ve already experienced enough turmoil in my life, and don’t need more, and b) I have yet to start lying to myself about being a coward in this area…..

How does the butterfly koan apply? That’s for me to know, and you to figure out…. No, really, sorry, I didn’t mean that, just fooling around. It applies because the world exists in duality; we perceive that universe by defining and evaluating those dualities according to their relation to each other (light/dark, etc.) as well as according to our own preconceptions and/or preferences. Sometimes what we perceive is clear and readily defined, while at other times, one can make no “heads or tails” of what we see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. And sometimes, the perceptions are just so powerful that we cannot easily deal with what we are perceiving, so we retreat from them. Or I do, anyway….

Now, my cowardice in this respect is, perhaps, justifiable. I put myself through a lot of hard times during certain times in my life, and the emotional toll was heavy. I am now more in balance, but the feelings and thoughts I had can come back in full force, at unexpected moments… Such is the case when I read about the sex trade, and think about how many of my sisters in the world are still being abused, physically and mentally, by the misogynistic assholes that perpetrate the atrocities.

I have previously re-blogged several articles from blog sites written by women who have survived, and left, the sex trade. The stories they tell, and the insights they have achieved, are incredibly powerful, and wrenching to the emotions. It is a rare thing for me to be able to stop myself from crying after reading the first paragraph, and it can take me ten minutes to read a two page article, as I have to stop and compose myself before returning to the story being related. I am always astounded by the strength of mind it took for them to get where they are, and I grieve for the pain and misery they still must contend with as survivors with PTSD (my old friend….).

Reading their stories also have the effect on me of wanting to buy a gun, and start eliminating some of the traffickers from the planet. This urge arises out of my anger and guilt, for it is males who perpetrate the atrocities, and I am ashamed of how low others of my gender can sink. But, alas, until I CAN afford to buy one, that little dream will have to wait…..

All I can do is to try to make people aware of the extent of the problem, by directing them to the stories told by the women who have lived through that Hell, with re-blogs and pearls such as this one. That is why I say I’ve been a coward, because my mind cravenly hid the awareness that connects to the outrage I feel when I get started on this issue, not being brave enough to put my emotions up on that higher level….and used the technical glitch I’ve been having with WordPress as an excuse (I’m currently unable to connect to any other WP sites if I’m signed in… I just get sent to a blank page while the browser falls into an infinite loop….).

Hence this somewhat dispassionate discussion of the issue. I’ve managed to get through this without bursting into tears, so I’ll consider myself lucky, and make myself a promise to re-blog for them as soon as I can get there to do so…. and I’ll not let myself chicken out…. This is an issue that will not go away; we men will never be free until we free our sisters from this bondage….

To read some of these articles yourself, use the WordPress search function to find these three sites, by blog titles…. Diary of A Dublin Call Girl, rmott62- Are We Not Human?, and Stella Mar, a Manhattan Call Girl…. all three have powerful messages that need to be spread around the planet….
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Here is an old school pearl, just because…. all these came up while perusing the dB today, so I figured, why not? They all have something to say that is applicable to today’s society. Sadly, none of it is particularly positive in nature…. It just goes to show that is it easier to find the negatives in life, because they are so numerous. Fortunately, the positives are much more valuable on a per capita basis, so it all balances out in the end…. One must only be patient in coming to that end…. BTW, there IS a hidden message in this grouping of pearls, but there is no need to try to decipher it, as it won’t be on the quiz….. But if you do, it will bring some extra clarity to the group’s purpose….

“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” — Thomas Jefferson

“It’s said that ‘power corrupts’, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.” — David Brin, The Postman

“Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.” — Sloan Wilson

OCCIDENT, n. The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient. It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe of the Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call “war” and “commerce.” These, also, are the principal industries of the Orient. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual & silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison, Virginia Conv. 1788

“Crime does not pay … as well as politics.” — Alfred E. Newman

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

See? The last line brings balance into the equation…. Don’t forget to register and vote this November, ffolkes. It’s important this time, for the forces of evil are gathering their powers to make a run at total world domination…. yup, it’s THAT serious….
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Dreamland

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.

By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,-
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,-
By the mountains- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods,- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp-
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,-
By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy-
There the traveler meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past-
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.

For the heart whose woes are legion
‘Tis a peaceful, soothing region-
For the spirit that walks in shadow
‘Tis- oh, ’tis an Eldorado!
But the traveler, traveling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.

Edgar Allan Poe

It has been a long time since I read any of Poe’s poetry; his stories are so good, one forgets he also was an excellent poet. This is a perfect example of that talent…. and I needed a beauty break….. enjoy!
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Rats! Thought I was done…. Today’s effort was just that…. an effort. But, perseverance has carried the day once again, so I’m putting myself into the hands of Fate, and letting this go out for consumption…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

We’ll tantalize them with caramelized onions….

Posted on June 27, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
La tabula rasa. The blank slate. Such is my mind today, as I gaze with hopeless longing at the empty screen. I’ve stared, and stared. I’ve torn at my hair. I’ve jumped up, spun around, and rattled the bones. I’ve cast the sticks, and I’ve sacrificed a chicken. I opened up two different veins. I’ve even broken down and prayed. And nothing….. there isn’t anything in there. Not a joke, or a story, not a poem or haiku. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I feel like a bloody Republican, (or a Democrat…equal opportunity bashing here….), you know “head’s all empty, and I don’t care”…..

Okay, so that last one was cruel. You’re probably right, I shouldn’t pick on them. Even though they deserve it, it is probably bad for MY karmic burden, which is, no doubt, already weighted heavily on the wrong side. But, what’s a guy to do? I can’t find any inspiration anywhere, and there are people out there panting for their morning Pearl….. Well, perhaps not. I have to keep telling myself that, or I’d give up. After all, it’s not as if I’m doing this because the money is so good, is it? No, it’s not….

Now that I have established myself in your minds as completely nuts, I think it might be a good thing if we just went and started pearling. If I stick around this intro much longer, I’m going to start pulling out what little hair I have left. Good grief, the way I feel this morning, this could conceivably turn into a MUSICAL, and we’ll all burst into song! To avoid that, we will now dive in & start our search for material…. shall we Pearl?…..
___________________________________

“My face is new, my license is expired, and I’m under a doctor’s care!!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sometimes Zippy just hits the nail right on the head! This is EXACTLY how I feel today, though I couldn’t say why this is so. My sleeping schedule has gotten really messed up, for some reason probably known only to my subconscious mind. The last two days, I’ve laid down to nap for a couple hours, and ended up sleeping for five hours, waking up just in time to go back to bed. So, I’ve ended up staying up late, which makes me get up later, etc. Add in my normal degree of insanity, some hunger pangs, and tobacco withdrawal symptoms, and what you end up with is one seriously funky attitude….

Now, funky is a question begging term, but in this case it happens to be precisely the right word to describe my mental state. I’m reminded of an old Tower of Power song, “I’m funky, but I’m clean!”. Of course, I’m not clean yet…. I shower after the morning Pearl, so I guess that makes me 100% funky. Yay…..

I know this is cheating. I know I’m just stalling, trying to fill up column inches with prattle and nonsense. I suppose I’ll have to justify all this by actually creating something….. SIGH…. okay, I’ll try that…..

Morning Pearls

Such mornings as these
chase away my dreams of light.
I won’t cry again.

gigoid

That will have to do, for the nonce…..
___________________________________

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

There are many folks out there who, when reading my material for the first time, might get the impression that I am an atheist, and an anarchist. The stuff I write would tend to give that impression, I have no doubt. But, it really isn’t the case, and just goes to show that not everything is always as it seems…..

I’m not an atheist, at least not in a classical sense. I would more accurately be described as agnostic, as I believe strongly in a spiritual component in the universe. But, the very concept of omnipotence, and omniscience, implies that one cannot define God, or whatever entity one considers to be the ultimate authority. A finite mind cannot comprehend an infinite mind; anything we can imagine cannot, by definition, be accurate or complete, as our minds are not infinite in scope.

It could be said that our imagination IS infinite. We can, at the very least, comprehend the concept of infinity, even if we cannot touch it, or see it, or count that high. But, to actually think that what we imagine about God is the same as reality is not only arrogant, it is foolish. Yet a large percentage of the human race not only believes they know what God looks like (ironically, God always looks like the folks who are claiming Him as their deity….), but that they know what He wants. To my way of thinking, this is sheer self-aggrandizement, and unjustifiably arrogant….

I suppose it helps them in dealing with the everyday stresses of life to think that they are special. To think they are beloved of God, and what they do is important to Him. This sense of belonging is important to a lot of folks, due I think, to their own fears about their ability to deal with reality as it exists. It gives them a sense of entitlement, and justifies their actions, no matter how immoral or unethical they may be. It allows them to act upon their impulses without restraint, to lie, to cheat, to steal, all in the name of the Lord. And, if they should happen to feel a tiny shred of guilt about what they are doing to other folks, why, they just confess their sins to Jesus, and all is forgiven!….

Sorry, folks, but I could never buy into the whole scenario, from my earliest days. All of my experience, and all of my reasoning have led me to a different view of reality than what is described by any religion. I have observed the behavior of most people of a religious bent to be, as a rule, hypocritical, cruel, bigoted, racist, and, for the most part, unrelated to any moral or ethical system of any depth. The most religious in society go so far as to threaten violence toward anyone who disagrees with their beliefs, justified by their own self-proclaimed right to spew their hatred on anyone who differs.

I believe in compassion and kindness. I believe in love. I believe in protecting the vulnerable, and helping the less fortunate. I believe in beauty. And, I believe in reality, whatever that may be; it’s purely subjective for the most part. I DON’T believe in the divinity of Jesus, or Buddha, or Lao Tzu, or Mohammad, or any other religious prophet. I don’t believe there is some white haired, bearded old guy sitting on a throne of gold up in the sky somewhere, looking down and getting his pants in a bunch because I didn’t salute his graven image first thing after I got up.

That whole graven image thing, and the idea that God wants, or needs, our worship has always been a thorn in my side. I mean, can’t these zealots understand the irony of worshiping an image of Christ on the cross? Don’t they know that the cross is a graven image? And why would an omnipotent being need MY worship? It makes no sense. None. I cannot imagine of ANY reason for a God to care at all about such petty bullshit; I don’t care to be worshiped, why should He? Having someone act that way toward me makes me uncomfortable, so I can’t see why a God would even want to go there. What purpose does it serve?

Well, one of my computer alarms just went off, and made me realize I was ranting, which I had not started out to do. I think y’all can get the gist of my arguments by this time, and those who are in disagreement with what I’ve written aren’t going to be persuaded away from their long-held delusions by my words, so further soliloquy would be futile.

I’ll just finish by saying this….. until Mankind grows up enough to be able to put aside the crutch of religion, and learns to stand up to reality as it exists, without the delusional imaginary friend to intercede on their behalf with the universe, then our path to extinction will remain clear…. It’s too bad really, because our species shows a lot of promise…. it’s too bad we will never be allowed to explore our limits as an adult species, because we will have killed ourselves off before we ever got out of childhood….
___________________________________

The cricket sang,
And set the sun,
And workmen finished, one by one,
Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,
The twilight stood as strangers do
With hat in hand, polite and new,
To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came,–
A wisdom without face or name,
A peace, as hemispheres at home,–
And so the night became.

Emily Dickinson

No comments required…. just enjoy!….
___________________________________

So, some folks might say it was cheating, but I don’t think so, and I’m the only one here, so…. thus we get through another fine morning, hopefully with some panache. If not, well, there’s always tomorrow…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

The Sacred Word for today is “Nosh”…..

Posted on June 22, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Yesterday, having so readily turned into a clusterf__k, leads steadily to today, which promises to be better, if only because it can’t be worse. Without getting into a huge rant or whiny outburst, let’s just say that I’m not looking forward with any great anticipation to the next six months of limbo, a word that oh so accurately describes my current state of existence. In fact, I’m dreading it, but there is, as usual, not a damn thing I can do about it, except learn how to wait, even more than I have already learned….. It is said that all things come to he who knows how to wait…. well, it would be nice to see a little proof of that. I’ve done, and continue to do, the waiting part of the deal….. so, where is the “all things” that are supposed to come?…..

Ah well, it’s bad enough believing in Murphy, and his power over me. It’s probably a good thing in this instance that I don’t believe the traditional dogma on God, as it would just be a pisser to think that God had anything to do with this…. By all reports, though, He is pretty vindictive and jealous, and putting me through this kind of trial probably wouldn’t be unheard of…. Look at what He is supposed to have done to Job, that poor idiot…. I guess having to spend some months scrambling for food isn’t much, compared to plagues, crop failures, losing sons and daughters, and generally getting shat upon by God…..

With that relatively morbid, but encouraging thought in mind, I guess we should go Pearl…..
___________________________________

“Of the two smartest creatures on the earth, man and the dolphin, each thought they were smarter then the other. Man thought he was smarter because he built many things and did much work, when the dolphins just played all day. The dolphins thought they were smarter for the same reason.” — Smart Bee

Perspective is everything, eh? I still think the dolphins got the better deal…. Actually, this just goes a long way toward showing the inappropriateness of the sense of entitlement that most humans feel. Having been granted “dominion” over the rest of the world’s creatures, said dominion, of course, self-granted, we hunt, and kill, every other animal on the planet, often just for the sake of killing, to see if we can….

I never understood the concept of “hunting” animals while using a high-powered rifle, unless those doing the hunting issued rifles to the game. I always thought that if one wished to hunt and kill a wild animal, then they should be limited to the same weapons the animal has… e.g. deer have antlers, which cannot be thrown, so the human gets one knife, which must be used without throwing. Bears have teeth, claws, strength and speed, so let’s make it even, & give the hunter a nice, sharp spear, AND a knife. Even bows & arrows aren’t fair play, to my mind, as they allow the human all the advantage of being able to injure or disable from a distance.

“I’m pretty good with people on an individual basis, but in groups, I really can’t stand the bastards!” — George Carlin

If hunters were limited to that sort of rules, designed to make it more fair, then perhaps I could feel more okay with it. But, the whole idea of killing for sport seems to me to be a bad habit to foster at all, from a wider ethical viewpoint. Killing, while natural to us, is not our most attractive feature, and our tendency to use it on each other is part of why we are so close to extinction. Killing, whether it is killing of animals or humans, also kills the spirit of the one doing the killing. Every time one takes the life of another creature, a little piece of their soul is damaged, and deadened. If carried on, the spirit becomes completely callous, immune to the pain of empathy for the creatures they kill. They become….. politicians…..

Ronald Wilson Reagan is an anagram for Insane Anglo Warlord. — Smart Bee

Now that might seem like a stretch of the imagination, but I challenge anyone to disprove my contention. Politicians don’t care about anyone but themselves; their spirits are dedicated to lying, stealing, and taking advantage of their fellow man. What kind of soul does it take to carry out those activities? One that is dead to empathy, that cannot feel the pain that others feel…. and that is a politician, by any other name….

“They [preachers] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.” — Thomas Jefferson

Okay, so that connection is a little dubious. But, it’s not really all that far off the mark; one could add preachers to the list of those who wear and/or display the hunter’s mask, as they are the ones who started the whole entitlement nonsense in the first place. Boy, if that wasn’t one of history’s greatest con jobs!

Getting folks to buy into that Garden of Eden story, straight out of somebody’s feverish imagination, was one of the best snow-jobs ever, for sure…. Of course, it does feed right in to that human desire to be special, but still, it took a lot of chutzpah to pull it off, and to continue to run the “long con” by establishing churches and priestly hierarchies. Nasty as it is, ethically and morally, I still have to admire the way they pulled it off….

“God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters.” — H.L. Mencken

I guess what this means in the large picture is that the human evolutionary change that Mankind needs the most is a change to our morals. When given a choice, most of Mankind opts to choose the easy path, the path of least resistance, and gives up the power of choice to others, in order to also give up responsibility. This is what needs to change. Mankind must learn to grow up, to take responsibility for the damage we have caused, and stop giving in to our baser nature. We need to cultivate the ethically higher parts of our nature… our reason, our empathy, our compassion. All of these need to become our motivation, rather than mere gratification of our base desires.

“Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Ah well, one can hope, even in the face of probable disaster, and I’ll keep on hoping…. foolish, I know, but what else can one do?….
___________________________________

ICONOCLAST, n. A breaker of idols, the worshipers whereof are imperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protest that he unbuildeth but doth not reedify, that he pulleth down but pileth not up. For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But the iconoclast saith: “Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Ah, at long last…. Finally, a complete definition of what I attempt here on “gigoid– Exploring Consensual Reality”…. I can’t think of a better way to put it than this…..

A common criticism that is used to try to negate the effect of a writer, or a protester, or an iconoclast, by any other name, is that all of what they say is so negative, that they propose no solutions to the problems they lament. This is usually shouted, or at least delivered with a sneer, intended to convey dismissal of what has been said, as if it is of no importance, by supporters (worshipers) of the icon under discussion, or often, by the icon themselves. Those delusional figures of self-proclaimed importance always greet such attacks, no matter how true, or how justified, as if they are of no import; it is part of their sociopathy to dismiss all that does not fit into their rigid set of standards….

“Have integrity. Make your deeds follow your words. Keep your commitments to self and others, speak the truth.” — Smart Bee

Which is why I enjoy using the Truth to puncture their balloons; irrefutable evidence produces the most amazing faces on those who don’t want to believe it. But, even icons cannot deny what is staring them in the face, so they attempt to deny its relevance, or distract from its presence by a counter-accusation, or best of all, claim there is an attack from outside.

(I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the timing of the attack on 9/11/01 was fairly suspicious, considering how close the Bush administration was to being exposed for having manipulated the election results in 2000. Shortly after articles appeared stating there was solid physical evidence of chicanery, in the form of vote tampering in the results from three pivotal states that got Bush elected, the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 took place, completely drawing the public’s attention from the possibility of a reversal of the election, by the sudden, shocking attack from the outside. I was suspicious of it then, and I remain suspicious now…. the timing was just too damn convenient for the Shrubs…..)

So, any who, the most obvious iconoclastic target for me at this point is Mitt the Twitt. He’s not a particularly challenging target, as he pretty much furnishes his own BS, and stumbles over his own words, and trips over his own ego, and generally craps in his own shoes. It’s almost too easy…. but fun, to be sure, as he really can make an ass of himself, without half trying, and that is pure fun to watch and report. I don’t really trust the Democrats either, but I do have respect for the office of the President, and so for the man in the office I show the respect of saying nothing, even though I could….

Of course, should the Twitt, through some unthinkable mistake, get into that office, I won’t be showing that respect, as it won’t have been earned. The only chance he has of winning the election is to use the same tactics as the Bushes, and cheat…. Funny how certain voting machines break down right at election time, isn’t it? And only in certain districts? Hmm…. Well, you can be sure, if he does, my respect for the office will not only be gone, but it may just turn the tide, and light the fuse under the ass of the American people to rise up and kick their sorry asses right off the planet, so we can get some serious work done on solving the problems we already have…. Again, all I can do is retreat into hope……
___________________________________

Summer Sun

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy’s inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I’m often unsure how to take Stevenson’s work. He was a complex man, living during an historically volatile era, yet his work is very romantic and simple, at least in appearance. But, that’s okay, too…. there is room for everyone at the Inn of the Inner Eye….
___________________________________

I’m not sure what to think of today’s effort….. I’m going to take a moment or two to do just that; excuse me, I’ll be right back…..

I must say….. whew! That’s quite a wild ride! I knew I was all over the place, but didn’t realize the extent of the issue until I went back over all of it at once…. Okay, here’s the thing, I could give a warning, to be cautious today, and take breaks while digesting all of this. But, we’re all the way back here at the ending, so you wouldn’t see it in time…. hmm, another conundrum. What to do, what to do….

Ah, there we go…. I’ll end this here, remind you to go wash up, in case any of it got on your clothes, and take an aspirin for the headache it caused before you lie down….. okay? Okay!

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

The cashews don’t usually complain….

Posted on June 21, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
So, the weather here is showing signs of the effects of global warming, by altering the normal pattern for this time of year. Yesterday was sweltering, relative to the past few weeks… not too hot, only around 90 or so, but it felt like descending to the upper levels of hell after all the mild weather of late. I still had the fan on when I went to bed last night. This morning, I had to get up & shut the windows, and turn on the heat for a bit to warm it up, as it was freezing inside and out. I looked outside and found a completely overcast sky, & chilly temperatures.

Now, that in itself is not unusual for Northern California’s SF Bay Area; nightly fog acts as a sort of air conditioner most days, lasting until about 1100 before burning off for a normally warm summer day. But, prior to global warming, the switch from spring weather to summer generally took more than one day…..

“I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.” — Charlie Brown

Ah well, the intro is too early to rant about global warming, or anything else. I’m kind of getting a bit discouraged anyway; my ranting, while cathartic for me, and possibly enjoyable for those few who read it, isn’t having much of an effect.

It would be nice to wake up one day, and see that things have changed….. the government issued emission control guidelines strict enough to work, or a Republican came out for gay marriage, or General Motors announces it is converting to all electric vehicles running on solar power. You know, just some small token, to let me know that my rants are not just shouting into the wind.

“Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

Alas, I’m afraid that will never happen, unless by some fantastic turn of chance my blog goes viral, and the ranting I carry on reaches the ears of a significant number of people, a number large enough to be able to have a real effect on reality. I’m still waiting…..

Ah well, since that probably is out of the question as well, I suppose I’ll just get on with today’s effort…. shall we Pearl?…..
___________________________________

“Control of the dissemination of information (or misinformation) is one of the principal sources of political power. Political power is what the discussion of the Internet is really about, not home-made bombs or pornography.” — Michael Goldsby — Letter to Communications of the ACM, Nov 95

Mr. Goldsby has hit upon a very significant piece of information here, one that is completely accurate, and is sure to be the target of the beloved ruling class, as something to deny, and/or distract away from the attention of the public. The people who seek to hold political power have a lot of practice at hiding what they are doing from the public, and the Internet, because of its currently unregulated nature, is a distinct threat to that policy.

Numerous political talking heads have been introducing legislation to Congress in attempts to curtail the free flow of information on the Internet, seeking to prohibit all sorts of exchanges of files and information between people over which they have no control. They do, of course, hide their true intentions behind some other reason for wanting to control that flow….

The bills they will introduce will say that they want to protect intellectual property rights, they want to protect the rights of corporations to make a profit, they want to keep kids from having access to pornography, they want to protect National Security…. all these are the reasons they will give for the legislation, but the true purpose remains there, behind all the distracting BS…. They want to control ALL the information that is sent out; only then can they be sure that the public will only see what they want us to see….

Silence is the language of complicity. — Smart Bee

They won’t stop trying to establish their own controls on the flow of information; it is against their nature to allow the “sheep” to determine where they will go to pasture. If we are to continue to enjoy the Internet as it is, with no restrictions to the flow of information, we will need to be alert to the attempts by the beloved ruling class to take it away.

Recent attempts have been defeated, partly due to the power of the Internet itself, as millions of users emailed their legislators, or signed online petitions, urging them to vote against the legislated attempt at shackling the Net…. and it worked! The response was so strong that even the legislators who supported the bill were forced to vote against it, or face the wrath of their constituency….. It was a beautiful example of how the public can fight back….

The Internet is now the best tool the public has to maintain awareness of those threats to our liberty that are being carried out on a daily basis by those who would have us believe they are acting in our interests. It is also the best tool we have to make sure that those same narcissistic power-mongers can’t hide from us; when the information is flowing freely, there is no place for them to hide. They know this, and that is why they are working so hard to neutralize the Internet, to pull its fangs, so they will be free to continue their program of lying, cheating, and stealing from the public….. and I say FUCK ‘EM!…….
___________________________________

“Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,”
Said then the lost Archangel, “this the seat
That we must change for Heaven, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who is now sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal World! and thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor – one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
A mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what should I be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence;
Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
— John Milton, “Paradise Lost”

Ironic, is it not? This is merely a piece of the epic poem by Milton, with its most famous line. The entire poem is one of the most revered pieces of literature in all of Mankind’s history, and the last line is indubitably one of the most well-known, and most often repeated, lines of all.

The irony, to me, is to note that, almost any priest/preacher would find the last line to be extreme heresy, yet it remains the favorite of all man’s works to date. This indicates to me that the inner spirit of most people knows crap when it hears it, and the dogma that most religions embrace most certainly falls into that category. Our innermost selves can see this, in spite of all the indoctrination into the dogma it may have endured, and can only agree with the sentiment, “Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven…..

SIGH…. I know that pieces such as this one tend to disappoint certain members of my family, on those rare occasions they actually read this many words at once; many of them are firmly ensnared in the dogmatic trap of born-again cultism. (I always have to wonder what was wrong with the first time they were born?….. I mean, it’s kind of disrespectful of our Mom to regret one’s birth…..) But, that’s okay, they never understood me very well anyway, but they are family, so they make an attempt to love me, heretic that I am….they have to, they’re family…. But they don’t have to like it, and they don’t…. Así es la vida loca, si?
___________________________________

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

Richard Brautigan

Richard Brautigan wrote much of his poetry about, and during, the time when he, and I, lived in Berkeley, in the Sixties. (I know, but I’m atypical…. I was there, and I remember all of it, even though I partook of EVERY activity that characterized the time…..) He was a few years older, but what he wrote destroyed any differences that might have existed between our spirits; I recognized him at first read.

The title line of this poem produces an image in my mind that offers me a lot of solace, for it is an image that could only become real if Mankind manages to keep from devolving into extinction, as we seem hell-bent on doing. A lot of his poems are the same, with a very strong, real connection to the current world, to reality, colored by the mind of a genius….
___________________________________

Well, that was satisfying…. I remembered Richard at the last moment, just when I was getting discouraged at the lack of pearls to be found…. Serendipity strikes again….. I’m hoping the fog burns off this morning, as that will ensure a nice, comfortable afternoon; I’ve been trying to get a walk in each day in the afternoon, in hopes of conditioning myself well enough to stand up to the traveling I want to do…. Having to take a nap each day like a four-year old is fun, and feels good, but, as the Scots say, it’s time to be living, for I’ll be a long time dead…. I’ll have plenty of time then for naps….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Buried alive in faint praise…..

Posted on June 20, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Intro, intro, who’s got an intro?…. Fuck it… I’m not in the mood for this…. Since I can’t think of anything to put here to draw you in, I’ll just have to dive right in, without any intro…. We all have to learn to live with disappointment, don’t we? Me, I’ve learned to not expect to either get up, or get through a day, without pain. You, well, you’ll have to live without today’s intro…. Feel lucky, that it isn’t doing without something you actually need….. shall we Pearl?….
___________________________________

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” — Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Hunger… real hunger. Hunger you can feel, in your empty belly, in the trembling in your arms and hands, in your light head, in your absolute focus on figuring out how to make it go away…..

How long has it been since you last felt that feeling? Or, if you did, how long did it last? How long did it take for you to assuage your hunger pangs? An hour? A day? More? Less?…. If you are in America, the most likely answer you will give would be the last. We are fortunate that the quality of life lived by the majority of people in this country allows them to be able to never feel the kind of hunger that lasts more than an hour or so…….

This month has been one with some unforeseen financial events, and my supply of food here in the last 10 days of the month is getting a bit slim. Oh, I’m in no danger of starving, by any means; just dying of boredom from eating the same stuff every day. I do have more resources than many, many people who are less well off than I. But, if I don’t discipline myself, I will surely be stretching my imagination the last few days to scrape up enough carbs to fill me up sufficiently to avoid prolonged hunger pangs. It sounds bad, but really isn’t too much so, due to some thoughts I had today while I was busy and couldn’t get around to eating, until I was pretty hungry…..

I thought about my hunger pangs…. They don’t hurt, at first, they are merely there, in the forefront of one’s attention, insistent and unrelenting in letting one know that the body is short of fuel. Occupying oneself with anything remotely interesting is enough to drive it out of the front of the mind, and just hang around in the back until you aren’t busy, whereupon it surges forth again, to let you know it isn’t happy. After a while, one has to decide whether to find something to continue to distract the attention, or do something about eating. Fortunately for me, it was just a matter of getting home from the pharmacy, and I could eat…..

In stark contrast, there are many people out there in this country, and the world, who can’t do anything at all about their hunger pangs, except endure them, for days at a time…. I wish I had an answer to this issue…. Well, I do, but it is the same answer as the solution to global warming, overpopulation, and the other issues about which I’ve previously ranted.

That answer lies in making changes to human nature, changes in the attitudes of the beloved ruling class, and all those ignoramuses who support them. Without those changes, the necessary changes to society will not happen, and we won’t have to worry too much longer about getting hungry….. breathing will have assumed primary importance by that time….

“Any fully matured science of ecology will have to grapple with the fact that from the ecological point of view, man is one of those animals which is in danger from its too successful participation in the struggle for existence.” — Joseph Wood Krutch
___________________________________

A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink—
I hunted all the Sand—
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand—

His Mighty Balls—in death were thick—
But searching—I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water—and of me—

‘Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—
‘Twas not his blame—who died
While I was reaching him—
But ’twas—the fact that He was dead—

Emily Dickinson

I don’t know about y’all, but when I was reading this poem from Emily, the face of the lawyer I dislike the most kept floating over the face of the tiger…. strange, but not particularly mysterious, considering…… enjoy!
___________________________________

If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper? — Smart Bee

Now, THAT’S funny! Some folks think that making fun of lawyers and those of the same ilk, (self-serving, avaricious, completely without compassion….) isn’t nice. They believe that lawyers and IRS agents are sincerely trying to help people with their problems. These are the same people who go to church on Sunday, listen to a sermon about the starving children in third world countries, and go home to sit down to a table full of food with no feelings of guilt. The same people who rant and complain about illegal immigrants, but won’t deign to work in the fields to harvest the food they eat, or will pay one of those illegal immigrants less than minimum wage to clean their house.

I say, FUCK THEM!!! Fuck the lawyers who use the misery of others to line their own pockets. Fuck the IRS agent who sweats some poor slob for thousands of penalty dollars because he made an inappropriate exemption claim on his form, so he could maybe get a dollar or two back on his return, instead of paying twice as much, percentage-wise, as any millionaire. Fuck the 1%, too, those greedy assbites.

Fuck the preacher/priest, who doesn’t pay any fucking taxes at all, and counsels obedience to worldly authority. And fuck the fucking politicians, who have set up and continue to take advantage of a system that keeps the honest, hard-working citizen on his knees, and rewards lying, cheating, bullying, and stealing from the public treasury….. Fuck them all, hard, in the place it will hurt the worst….

Sorry about the vulgarity; all of a sudden, the anger I feel at the world’s situation these days built up beyond my ability to contain, and it needed to come out somewhere….. this was handy. Anger, I know, is often counter-productive, but in this case its underlying cause, the desire of mine that is denied, can be laid directly at the feet of those I mentioned above.

What I want is for everyone to have a fair chance to be happy. That’s all, and that would be enough. That is what our Constitution was supposed to provide, but those perverted assholes who actually run things have done all they could to see that purpose is not fulfilled. The average Joe today doesn’t have a chance, unless he is willing to give up all of his humanity in the search for wealth and power. IT FUCKING MAKES ME CRAZY!

Okay, that’s enough on that for one day. I could easily write another five or six paragraphs giving examples of the egregious lying, cheating, and stealing going on in front of us, but that would no doubt end up boring us both. Instead I’ll ask you to go register to vote, to make sure that, for this election at least, there is a chance to push back the forces of ignorance that once again threaten our way of life…..Register, and make sure to vote……
___________________________________

Well, I feel better, if not altogether good. I always find a good bit of ranting to be cathartic, and actually helps keep me from biting some other innocent fool later in the day….. 🙂 Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Fluffy bags of pineapple chips….

Posted on June 19, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
It is always interesting to me to see what kind of nonsense I can come up with for this introduction, especially on mornings like this, when I wake up with more pain than normal. It’s a Catch-22 situation, sort of, where, if I sleep well, I sleep longer, the medication level in my blood decreases, and I wake up in pretty severe pain. If I don’t sleep well, I take the meds during the night, and wake up with less pain. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess….

I gotta say, the other way is better, because this sucks; I feel like I’m pushing through a haze just to think. And, as is apparent, it has affected my writing, as I seem to be stuck in personal complaint mode…. fuck it, I’m taking an extra pill, and waiting for it to hit…. see ya in a while….

“Once upon a time, I dreamed of becoming a great man. Later, a good man. Now, finally, I find it difficult enough and honor enough to be–a man.” — Edward Abbey

If one is patient, if one can look long enough, a pearl to fit any situation will appear….. A bit less grouchy & whiny now, I’m ready to dive into the WWW to look for some pearls. Provided, of course, that Murphy isn’t hanging about, looking for some way to further complicate matters….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“If reality wants to get in touch, it knows where I am.” — Smart Bee
___________________________________

And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought
Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
— Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) — In Memoriam, xxiii, Stanza 4

Boy, this one would be really useful, if only we could get a few political pundits to buy into the concept….. It seems that the Republicans have decided to take the low road to November for the time being. Their presumptive candidate, Mitt the Twitt, has been extremely reserved in the last few days, both in his speech and his appearances. I’m fairly certain he got the word from the true power brokers, the bankers who finance his program, to keep his stupid mouth shut, unless he spoke exactly what they told him to say. He hasn’t responded ad lib for weeks now, and that is just not in his nature; it has to be a learned behavior on his part.

Now, while this is good for all of us, to not have to listen to his egregious lying every day, it is a dangerous sign for the country. Without really saying much of anything substantial, the Twitt has garnered support from a large segment of ignorant fundamentalists and ultra-conservatives, a fairly substantial block of votes, and is now being very careful not to alienate them, a habit of his proven in the primaries…. These people will support him, as long as they believe he will bring religious mania to the job, so he is saying nothing to disabuse them of that perception….

But, time is on the Democrats side this time. The Twitt is a master doofus, for certain, and has no idea, nothing at all in his head, that comes near the thought above by Lord Alfred. When he speaks off the cuff, he repeatedly resorts to his congenital tendency toward untruth in almost every sentence. If he doesn’t know an answer, he makes it up, and there are a LOT of answers he doesn’t know. As a matter of fact, he has, no doubt, been told by his handlers not to answer ad lib queries at all, using distraction and referral to keep from directly addressing such approaches, because every time he does, the extent of his ignorance becomes ever clearer…..

No, I don’t think the Twitt will be able to stand up to the scrutiny that is coming. Once the conventions are done, and the formal candidates begin their campaigns, the flaws that are so apparent to me in his makeup will come to light in the harsh glare of public examination, and will, I have no fear, be found wanting….. The degree to which he resorts to lies and misinformation is obvious, and not even the American public will stand for someone who lies so badly……
___________________________________

“The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.” — Paul Valery, 1895

I like this…. it is a powerful insight into human nature. But that is not why I like it…. I like it because it proves itself; it is perfectly tautological, for he fulfills the accuracy of his contention by the act of stating it. I also like it because it takes a perfectly simple idea, and complicates it unmercifully, torturing the poor thing until it is crying out for surcease. I mean, how hard can it be to understand, “I think we’re all Bozos on this Bus!”, which, you will please note, says the exact same thing as mssr. Valery?……

Nothing draws the attention of society faster than a good, big mistake, and it is natural for all humans to make the biggest mistakes we can manage. Sorry, but it’s just the way we are, and it’s always been that way. The smartest ffolkes learn to put on a big, red nose and make the best of it. Many others, not so sanguine, try to deny it, and become fundamentalists, seemingly born with no sense of humor at all. A lot of folks try to ignore the entire subject, and end up getting caught often “with their pants down”, a common phrase that indicates how well the language accurately portrays the concept….

“Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself, for he shall never cease to be entertained.” — John Powell

I’ve found the easiest, and most effective, method for dealing with this part of our nature is to embrace it. To accept our bozoid tendencies and utilize them to my advantage, both by recognizing it in others, and by appreciating it within myself. Nothing is more liberating, or more cleansing to the spirit, than a good laugh at one’s own expense….. and finding those moments of laughter are easier than can be imagined, once one learns to let that side of their nature free. The Universe at large is very silly, in many ways, and welcomes bozoid behavior with open arms…. After all, we are the stars of our own show, and we can write the script however we like…..

“Should I do my BOBBIE VINTON medley?” — Zippy the Pinhead
___________________________________

Haiku’s inventor
must have had seven fingers
on his middle hand.
— Smart Bee

Bonus pearl…. it’s just so perfect! Logical, precise structure, and irony, all in one…. beautiful….. Then there is this…..

The only problem
with Haiku is that you just
get started and then
— Smart Bee

Sorry, it won’t happen again…..
___________________________________

A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety

Come swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A mermaid, not a punk;
A drunkard is a dead man,
And all dead men are drunk.

William Butler Yeats

I had a yen for Yeats…. 🙂
___________________________________

It has been said that “true freedom is the release from pain”, and I am here to tell you, it is gospel truth. It is astounding how differently one looks at life and the world when not filtered through a haze of pain. It makes one almost want to break out in song in praise of biochemistry and drugs, but I don’t think I’ll scare the neighbors like that just now….. All in all, it didn’t turn out too badly, I think, so, we’re off to publish…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Broken vicars fixed while you wait….

Posted on June 18, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
We don’t really fix the vicars, we just use a lot of duct tape to hold them together until they can get back up to the pulpit. The only real fix for them is a complete change of heart, and that is beyond my powers. Knowing my predilection for dissing preachers, you might wonder why I set up shop to fix them….Simple…. it’s easy money….

They break all the damn time, and the congregations will pay well to keep their blinders in place. I figured, since they give me such a pain all the time, I ought to get something out of having to deal with them. And duct tape is relatively cheap, compared to the time & energy it would take to perform any really effective brainwash, whether that wash is to clean it up & free it, or to increase control over it. Either way is harder than applying a layer of DT, and my travel fund gets fatter this way…. Our motto is, “If it’s not broke, let me take a crack at it”…..

So, if you know of any broken vicars, just have them sent over…. we’ll take care of them, and give them exactly what they need….. honest!…. Okay, silliness over….. The title line today kind of tickled me, and I thought I’d expand the idea a bit…. It’s a bit less pointedly cruel than I had hoped, but we need to get on with finding some pearls, so the duct tape treatment will have to suffice.

Perhaps a bit of water-boarding next time, just to assuage that blood thirst I know I get whenever I get a real live vicar in my shop…. Yeah, that’s the ticket, give them a taste of what they say is coming for us if we don’t toe the dogmatic line…. I like it, it is justice incarnate…. Mankind has a lot of sorrow and pain to pay them back for, to my way of thinking….

Well, before this turns into a rant instead of an intro, perhaps we’d best get our gear on and hit the water…. Shall we Pearl?….
___________________________________

“Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, utters another.” — Homer (c. 700 B.C.)

I was reminded of this line yesterday when I read how Mitt Romney had responded to President Obama’s announcement regarding the change in immigration policy, to stop deporting a certain class of people working to become citizens. His response, or more accurately, his lack of expected response, points out one of his secondary lines of defense against telling the truth, to wit, saying nothing when there is something that should be said….

The new policy means that young people who were brought to the US, and now are law-abiding, hard-working people who are merely unnaturalized legally, will NOT be deported, but instead will be assisted to achieve their naturalization as citizens. It is the only real humane way to deal with the situation, and is a good step in the direction of humane immigration policies.

In the past, Mr. Romney has repeatedly expressed his views on this issue, stating clearly that he disagreed with it, and would not approve of such changes…. he wants them all to be deported, and has said so in the past, in speaking to conservative groups of voters…..

“People who don’t Think probably don’t have Brains; rather, they have grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

Now that the POTUS has instituted this policy, which is strongly supported by a large percentage of the voting populace, Mitt has nothing to say against it. He merely stated he doesn’t agree, but would not commit himself so far as to say he would stop the program if he were elected…. In other words, he lied his bloody head off…..

“I’d like to ram a hunk of fried goat cheese straight up his ass.” — A wonderful line from MYSTIC PIZZA

Now that he has confirmed his position as the likely Republican candidate in November, to run against the POTUS, his handlers have instructed him to shut his flapping lips, not wanting to take the chance that any of his actual thoughts or opinions would get found out by the voters he is desperately trying to convince of his qualifications.

They don’t want him to prove the old saw about proving himself to be a fool by opening his mouth & removing all doubt….. Like any political entity, their response is to have him lie by omission, rather than his usual method, which consists generally of just making something up, no matter how unreal or absurdly false it may be…..

It’s going to be an interesting campaign, I think…. the trick will be to figure out which side is telling the lies that will help us the most, or more accurately, hurt us the least…. These days, that is about the best we can hope for, given the field of compulsive liars we have from which to choose….. After all,

It is difficult to legislate morality in the absence of moral legislators. — Smart Bee
___________________________________

“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable… The second was when biological research robbed man of his particular privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world.” — Sigmund Freud

Dr. Freud was not always the most accurate of thinkers, as evidenced by the large number of practices and theories of psychiatry he developed that have been proven to be either completely false, or merely misguided. Modern psychiatry does owe him a large debt; not necessarily for the details of his theories, but for the scientific approach he took to the research into human behavior, and its motivations and workings. He helped psychiatry evolve from the level of shamanism to science.

This statement, however, is perfectly accurate, and a very insightful deduction as well. It goes far to explain a large number of the fringe elements of society, and the reaction they have given to the absolute verity of these two concepts. A very large percentage of mankind has never really gotten over the shock of discovering just how large the universe is, and in general, deal with that knowledge by ignoring it, never paying any attention to anything but their immediate surroundings. Even more of humanity resented learning that there is no evidence to support the idea of creationism, and the most common response to that has been, and in far too many cases continues to be, one of complete denial….

What is funny to me is that these folks who would deny evolution are the ones who benefit the most from its effects. Only the advances that mankind has made make it possible for them to survive at all. We are so far removed from living in caves, with no medical science, and all the other advances civilization has brought, that our intelligence level is no longer a factor in surviving. Thus, the ones who would normally not have lived long enough to reproduce, instead have large numbers of offspring, all just as lacking in reasoning ability as the next, continuing the legacy of ignorance that such denial indicates.

The irony of this is invisible to them; their very existence depends on what they deny, but they cannot see it…. and this lack of vision is what is killing them, and unfortunately, the rest of us as well….. It’s enough to make a person feel fatalistic….

“The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not… yet I occurred.” — Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah
___________________________________

There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings, are.

None may teach it anything,
‘T is the seal, despair, —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, ‘t is like the distance
On the look of death.

— Emily Dickinson

If you can’t tell, I’m feeling a bit dark today. This little piece of genius from Emily fits right in…. enjoy!
___________________________________

It’s a Monday. I can tell, even without looking. Must be the 45 years of disciplining myself to go to work; a few unconscious habitual emotional states would naturally build up, enough to recognize a Monday anyway…. Fortunately, it only affects me, now, in that everybody else are the ones who have to be at work, and my only connection to that is if I need something from them…. another retirement perk they don’t tell you about. Gotta find your fun somewhere, eh? …… Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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